Workers sue Metro General Hospital at Meharry over unpaid wages

Aug. 16, 2013

Metro General Hospital / File / The Tennessean

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The Tennessean

A lawsuit accuses Metro General Hospital at Meharry of failing to pay employees when they worked through lunch breaks and past their regular shifts.

The suit was filed against the city-owned, safety net hospital in federal court. Mike Safley, deputy director of the Nashville legal department, said he had seen the court document and planned to discuss the allegations with the hospital board. The city, however, is not a defendant in the suit.

Lucius High, a nurse administrative supervisor, and Carla Hilgert, a nurse, said their wages were automatically deducted for 30-minute lunch breaks they didn’t get to take because of staffing shortages at the hospital.

They also allege in the complaint, which gives only one side of a legal dispute, that they were uncompensated for work performed responding to pages after their shifts had ended.

Their lawyer, Michael L. Russell, filed the suit as a “collective action” under the Fair Labor Standards Act, which may open the door for other hospital workers to also sue.